The dress, designed by Tribal Sport, was presented to Firebirds players at a special yarning circle at Nissan Arena on Tuesday ahead of Sunday’s First Nations Round clash against the Melbourne Vixens at the same venue.
Several elements of Cummins’ artwork, called “The Dreams of our Future”, have been incorporated into the design.
The artwork was revealed last year at the launch of Netball Queensland’s Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan and depicts the organisation’s cultural journey, highlighting the importance of reflection and the efforts of those who have paved the way to build a culturally safe environment.
This year’s dress includes the following key elements:
- Cultural safety symbol – standing on the shoulders of the giants who have come before (taking the learnings from our ancestors and the past players that have come before us).
- Kangaroo feet/tracks – Always moving forward (our 2025 team starts a new era, moving only forwards to forge a new path).
- Connector lines – the dotted line representing the connection between communities (supported by our surrounding communities – past players, fans, members, support staff, friends and family).
- Stars – representative of our dreams of the future (we will head towards the dreams of our future).
The dresses will be worn this weekend as part of Suncorp Super Netball’s First Nations Round, coinciding with National Reconciliation Week.
After successful auctions in 2023 and 2024, this year’s player-worn dresses will be auctioned to raise funds for the Diamond Spirit program – which uses netball as a vehicle to engage, empower and educated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in remote and regional communities across Queensland.
Since 2017, 2,500 participants in remote communities have accessed netball clinics and inter-community carnivals through Diamond Spirit while 630 students have enrolled in Educate Hubs, which provide opportunities to enhance physical and cultural wellbeing.
For more information on Diamond Spirit, click here.
Full details on the Firebirds First Nations dress auction will be available at a later date.
